Recently, a tripartite meeting between representatives of United Naga Council Manipur (UNC), Manipur government and central government was held in New Delhi to discuss UNC’s demand for rollback of the Manipur government decision to create seven new districts in 2016 December 8. Manipur became a 16-district state, after seven new districts were formed by dividing the nine existing ones during the Okram Ibobi Singh regime.
The newly-created districts are Tengnoupal bifurcated from Chandel district, Kamjong from Ukhrul, Pherzawl from Churachandpur, Noney from Tamenglong, Kangpokpi from Senapati and Jiribam from Imphal East districts. The creation of these districts came as a surprise and challenge to UNC as they were enforcing an indefinite economic blockade, protesting against the possible creation of two districts, Sadar Hills and Jiribam. They had alleged that the new districts would encroach upon the ancestral land of the Nagas.
While they had been objecting to creation of a Kuki-dominated district carved out of Senapati district, they were wary of incorporation of territories under Tamenglong district for carving out a district from Imphal East district. Instead, the then government outfoxed the dissenters by also carving out new districts of Kamjong from Ukhrul district, Noney district from Tamenglong among the seven new districts. Tengnoupal which has a mixed population of Nagas and Kukis were bifurcated from Chandel district.
On the other hand, Kangpokpi district was created from the territories under Sadar Hills Autonomous District Council. Kangpokpi assembly constituency under this new district was once represented by a Nepali in the person of Kishore Thapa, but now Kukis have become the dominant community and representing it for quite some time. The decision was a political masterstroke, which not only fulfilled the long-standing demand of the Kukis while dividing the Nagas as well. But it had its ramifications which still continue to fester inter-community relations in the state.
After coming to power in the 2017 state assembly elections, BJP under the leadership of Congress turncoat and Chief Minister N Biren Singh could have overturned the said decision of district reorganisation as promised. BJP went back on its promise while Naga Peoples Front (NPF) chose to a partner in the BJP led government.
After 2022 elections, NPF is still a partner in the BJP-led government. Meanwhile tripartite talks had been going on for the last seven years or so without any progress. In the most recent assembly session, Chief Minister N Biren Singh lambasted the Congress saying that the basic principles of administrative convenience were completely disregarded in the 2016 reorganisation of districts and that it was done mostly on political considerations. The regular tripartite meeting between the Centre, state government and UNC had stopped for quite some time till the recent New Delhi talks.
Question is, how the demand chose to gain momentum at a time, while the Meitei-Kuki conflict is flaring and Chief Minister N Biren is going overboard to buttress Meitei-Naga relations, is anybody’s guess? Although occasional talks were going on with a central representative in attendance, the government chose to buy time and simply did not consider rolling back the Congress government’s decision of the district reorganisation. That was also politics.
Chief Minister N Biren Singh did not want to disturb the waters which had somehow settled down for the present. In a complex web of differing interests and contested space, politicians usually adopt the ‘longish’ negotiation process without realising that never-ending negotiations also adds more complexity to the problem. The reality is that, posts of seven new deputy commissioners (DCs) along with SDOs and SDCs by creation of new Sub-divisions were made available, besides infrastructure development of new district headquarters and sub-divisions came as a bonus. Ultimately, it all comes to that. The opportunities in district creation is more important than political considerations.
